Til Congress, ( KOUSP: OF REPRESENTATIV^ES. ( 
1st Session. \ ) 



Report 
No. 1005. 



RELIEF OF THE STATE OF KENTUCKY 



LY 21, 1916. 



-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the 
Union and ordered to be printed. 



Stephexs of Mississippi, from the, Committee on Claims, sub- 
mitted the following 

REPORT. 

[To accompany S. 2543.] 



The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the hill (S. 2543) 
for the relief of the State of Kentuckj-, having considered the same, 
I'port thereon with a recommendation that it do pass. 

Senate Report No. 382, Sixty-fourth Congress, first session, 
together with a memorandum submitted by C. C. Calhoun, agent 
for the State of Kentucky; also copy of an act, public No. 168, are 
appended hereto and made a part of this report. 



[Senate Report No. 382, Sixty-fourth Congress, first session.] 

The Committee on Claims, to which was referred the bill (S. 2543) for the relief of 
the State of Kentucky under the act of July 8, 1898, and acts amendatory thereto, 
'laving had the bill under consideration, recommend that it do pass. 

The pm-pose of the bill is to enable the State of Kentucky to obtain identically 
Uie same relief which a majority of the other States have already received by pro- 
viding for the consideration under the "reimbursement acts," so called, of Julv 8, 
1S!J8 (30 Stat. L., 730), March 3, 1899 (30 Stat. L., 1356), and April 27, 1904 (33 Stat. 
1-., 312), of its claim, amovmting to $1,400.44, for expenses incurred in aiding the 
i nited States to raise the Volunteer Army for the War with Spain, and wliich, because 
' ii certain rulings of the accotmting officers of the Treasury Department, was not filed 
before the limitation expired, and was not disallowed before the amended act of 
April 27, 1904, was passed, wliich provided for the consideration and allowance of 
tliose claims only which had been filed by the States for expenses incurred after 
tlieir respective Volunteers had been mustered into the United States service and 

liich had been disallowed, for the reason that such expenses were incurred after 
he Volunteers had been mustered into the United States ser\'ice. 

The result has been that a majority of the States have been reimbursed for experises 

cm-red by them after their soldiers were mustered into the United States service, 

Idle the State of Kentucky has not been so reimbm-sed for ideritically the same 
'iiiracter of expenses, which'were necessarily incm-red and paid by it, and the object 
I the bill under consideration is to afford to the State of Kentucky, which has not 

•en thus reimbursed, exactly the same relief which has been afforded to those which 
nave been reimbursed for identically the same kind of expenditures, made under 
the same conditions and for the same purposes. 



2 EELTEF OF THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. 

MEMORANDUM. 

An examination of this bill (S. 2543) discloses its merits and the necessity for ite 
passage. Its purpose is to enable the State of Kentucky to obtain a consideration 
under the "reimljursement acts" of Congress, so called, of July 8, 1898 (30 Stat. L., 730), 
March 3, 1899 (30 Stat. L., 1356), and April 27, 1904 (33 Stat. L., 312), of its claim for 
expenses incurred in aiding the United States to raise the Volunteer Army for the War 
with Spain. 

Certain of the States filed before the accounting officers of the Treasury Department 
claims under said acts of July 8, 1898, and March 3, 1899, for expenses which had 
been incurred after their respective volunteers had been mustered into the United 
States service. 

These claims were of a like character as the present claim of the State of Kentucky. 

In a decii^ion dated ]\Iay 15, 1900, the Comptroller of the Treasury Department, held 
"that expenses incurred for supplies furnished to troops after they were mustered into 
United States service can not be reimbursed under the provisions of the acts above 
mentioned" (6 Comp. Dec, 873). The above-mentioned acts referred to are those 
of Jidy 8, 1898, and March 3, 1899, supra. 

This was followed by the passage of the act of April 27, 1904, supra, wliich provided, 
among other tilings, for the consideration and allowance of claims for stores furnished 
or expenses incurred or transportation furnished after the troops had been mustered 
into service of the United States, provided said claims had theretofore been filed and 
disallowed . 

Because of this prior decision by the Comptroller of the Treasury of May 15, 1900, 
in which he held that claims for expenses incurred after the troops had been mustered 
into the service were not allowable under said acts of July 8, 1898, and March 3, 1899, 
the State of Kentucky did not go to the apparently useless trouble of filing its claim 
for expenses incurred after muster and getting it disallowed before the passage of said 
act of April 27, 1904. 

Subsequent to the passage of tliis act of April 27, 1904, which provided for an allow- 
ance of these after muster claims, Kentucky filed its claim which is covered by the bill 
under consideration, but it was disallowed because the State had not gone to the 
apparently useless trouble of having had it previously disallowed under acts wliich 
had been decided not to apply to it. 

In passing upon tliis claim of the State of Kentucky, in a manuscript decision, 
dated October 26, 1905, the comptroller held as follows: 

"The expenses for which reimbursement is claimed were incurred after the troops 
were mustered into the United States service; the said claim had not been disallowed 
prior to April 27, 1904, the date of the act authorizing the allowance of certain expendi- 
tures incurred after muster; the relief as to said items afforded by said act extended 
only to such as had theretofore been disallowed. * * * See decision of tliis date 
in the case of the State of Ohio. " 

The following is the part of the decision dated October 26, 1905, on the claim of the 
State of Ohio, which is referred to in the decision in the Kentucky case: 

" Section 2 of the act of April 27, 1904, supra, specifically refers to claims on file at 
the time of the passage of the act in the office of the Auditor for the War Department, 
and theretofore disallowed. The language is clear and explicit. I do not think its 
provisions can be extended to any claims not on file and disallowed at the time said 
act became a law, April 27, 1904." 

A copy of said act of April 27, 1904, is filed here\vith, marked "Exhibit No. 1." 

Private bills have been passed for a number of other States for similar claims of 
identically the same character as the one under consideration for the State of Ken- 
tucky, among them being the act approved March 3. 1904, for the State of Iowa (33 
Stat.'L., 58), and for the State of Rhode Island, June 7, 1906 (34 Stat. L., 215). 

At least two favorable reports have been made in the Senate on bills similar to the 
one under consideration, except they were of a general character, whereas the present 
one is limited to the State of Kentucky. Copies of these reports, Senate No. 1052, 
Sixtieth Congress, second session, and Senate No. 1054, Sixty-first Congi'ess, third 
session, are filed herewith as "Exhibits 2 and 3." 

It ought to refjuire no argument in support of this bill, which is intended to remove 
this doubtless unintentional inequality in the dealing of the Federal Government 
with one of the States of the Union in the settlement of its valid claims for identically 
the same kind of expenditures, made under the same conditions and for the same pur- 
poses, for which reimbursement has been afforded to other States. 

Respectfully submitted this 4th day of February, 1916. 

C. C. Calhoun, 
Agent joT the. State of Kentucliij. 

D. ot u. 
AUG &-.J916 



r 



X" 



RELIEF OF THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. 



[Public— No. lOS.] 

AN ACT To amend an act approved March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, entitled "An act 
to amend an Act cnl it led 'An act to reimburse the governors of States and Territories for expenses incurred 
by them in aiding the United States to raise and organize and supply and equip the \'olunteer Army of 
the United States in the existing war with Spain,' approved July eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety- 
eight," and so forth, and for other purposes. 

Be it enacted bi/ the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled, That section six of the act of Congress approved March third, 
eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, entitled "An act to amend an act entitled 'An 
act to reimbtirse the governors of States and Territories for expenses incurred by them 
in aiding the United States to raise and organize and supply and equip the Volunteer 
Army of the United States in the existing war with Spain,' approved July eighth, 
eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and for other purposes," be, and the same is 
hereby, amended by striking therefrom the words "nineteen hundred and two" and 
inserting in lieu thereof the words "nineteen hundred and six," so that the same shall 
read : 

"Sec 6. That all claims for reimbursement under this act or the act approved 
July eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, shall be presented in itemized form 
to the Treasury Department on or before January first, nineteen hundred and six, 
or be forever barred." 

Sec. 2. That where the governor of any State or Territory has furnished military 
transportation, or has piu-chased or authorized the i^urchase of supplies, or incurred 
expenses for services rendered, and which purchases of supplies and expenses for mili- 
tary transportation and services rendered have been certilied by the governor of such 
State or Territory as necessary, just, and reasonable for the organization, maintenance, 
transportation, and comfort of trooj^s raised by him and accepted into the service of 
the United States Army in the said war with Spain, the Secretary of the Treasury be, 
and he is hereby, authorized to allow in the settlement of claims for reimbursement 
now on file in the office of the Auditor for the War Department, such items or parts 
thereof a? have been disallowed in the consideration of said claims, for the reason that 
they appear to have been for stores fiu-nished or expenses inciu-red or transportation 
furnished after the troops raised had been mustered into the service of the United 
States; and the certificate of the governor of such State or Territory that such expenses 
were incurred in good faith, for the sole purpose of aiding the United States in the 
raising, organization, transportation, and equipment of troops, shall be held to be 
sufficient to authorize the final settlement and paj^ment in full of such claims for re- 
imbursement. 



Approved, April 27, 1904. 



o 



(^aylord Uros. 

Makers 

Syracuse, N. Y, 

PIT. JAN. 21, 1908 



jj^gSBSXtucnr^ 



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